Jamala Wildlife Lodge and Pitch Music & Arts Festival demonstrate how adding experiences to the co-creation of value is an effective way to create and build brand equity (‘CBBE’). It can help with the creation of brand equity by (1) creating uniqueness and personality essential to building brand meaning, (2) creating an emotional experience that fosters positive brand responses, and (3) encouraging intense and active relationships through the co-creation of value. These three reasons will be discussed and applied to two different Australian brands which use experiences as a main strategy to build CBBE; Pitch Music & Arts Festival, and Jamala Wildlife Lodge.
Personality and Values
I believe that using experiences as an addition to the co-creation of value allows brands to share their personality and values with the consumer, as they are an effective method of demonstrating sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness (the five dimensions of brand personality). This is more difficult to achieve with tangible products by themself. Jamala Wildlife Lodge demonstrates uniqueness through the personality dimensions by offering hotel accommodation experiences with exotic zoo animals, this highlights its uniqueness as a brand.
Emotional Response
It is clear that consumer feelings are an important component of ‘brand response’, I believe that offering experiences to the co-creation of value has the strong potential to create emotional responses which affect the customers feelings about the brand (Schmitt, 1999). For example, Pitch Music and Arts Festival (‘Pitch Festival’) is a five-day remote camping festival featuring a range of different musical events designed to create excitement and an emotional response. The uniqueness of the event, in combination with the widespread use of drugs literally designed to induce intense euphoria (which is not part of Pitch’s marketing strategy I assume), mean that it is no wonder that Pitch Festival has strong brand equity and a reputation for being the most enjoyable festival in Australia.
Encourage Relationships
Finally, I believe that using experiences in the co-creation of value allows for the creation of intense and active relationships at the pinnacle of CBBE (Keller, 2001) and that these help the consumer to create a sense of belonging that extends beyond the personal experience to their social and cultural identity (Schmitt, 1999). Pitch Festival, like Burning Man in the United States, thrives on community input into the experience. Each year, artists and festival-goers actively volunteer to design and set-up the performance stages. This sense of community derived from active engagement is instrumental to the success of Pitch Festival, and demonstrates how customers are behaviourally loyal, and have an attitudinal attachment to the brand.
Personality and Values
I believe that using experiences as an addition to the co-creation of value allows brands to share their personality and values with the consumer, as they are an effective method of demonstrating sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness (the five dimensions of brand personality). This is more difficult to achieve with tangible products by themself. Jamala Wildlife Lodge demonstrates uniqueness through the personality dimensions by offering hotel accommodation experiences with exotic zoo animals, this highlights its uniqueness as a brand.
Emotional Response
It is clear that consumer feelings are an important component of ‘brand response’, I believe that offering experiences to the co-creation of value has the strong potential to create emotional responses which affect the customers feelings about the brand (Schmitt, 1999). For example, Pitch Music and Arts Festival (‘Pitch Festival’) is a five-day remote camping festival featuring a range of different musical events designed to create excitement and an emotional response. The uniqueness of the event, in combination with the widespread use of drugs literally designed to induce intense euphoria (which is not part of Pitch’s marketing strategy I assume), mean that it is no wonder that Pitch Festival has strong brand equity and a reputation for being the most enjoyable festival in Australia.
Encourage Relationships
Finally, I believe that using experiences in the co-creation of value allows for the creation of intense and active relationships at the pinnacle of CBBE (Keller, 2001) and that these help the consumer to create a sense of belonging that extends beyond the personal experience to their social and cultural identity (Schmitt, 1999). Pitch Festival, like Burning Man in the United States, thrives on community input into the experience. Each year, artists and festival-goers actively volunteer to design and set-up the performance stages. This sense of community derived from active engagement is instrumental to the success of Pitch Festival, and demonstrates how customers are behaviourally loyal, and have an attitudinal attachment to the brand.
Final Thoughts
Jamala and Pitch Festival demonstrate how using experiences in the co-creation of value is an extremely effective way at building brand equity because: it allows the brand to demonstrate their personality and uniqueness alongside the consumer, the experience journey with the consumer allows for the development of strong emotional responses to the brand, these responses can lead to the development of active relationships and consumer brand resonance. As demonstrated, this is often easier to achieve through experiences, rather than more tangible offerings.
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